Heavenly bound...or not?

I’m sorry God, but I just do not believe in hell or heaven.  The idea of hell has become a means of controlling people’s actions: if you don’t follow the instructions of the Church, you’re headed for eternal damnation. The notion of heaven makes people feel better about facing their own death and coping with the death of loved ones. It’s as though it’s unacceptable to consider that this life could ever be everything.

The fear of hell as a child was bred into me through my Church upbringing.  I grew up believing that I had to say a special prayer, “Dear Lord Jesus, please come and live inside my heart” in order to avoid hell.  I had the understanding from an early age that hell was a fiery place where the devil lived and the people that were sent there were damned to an eternity of pain.  The people that ended up in hell were all the people that had not said that special prayer to Jesus.  Thirty years on in human existence and this old tale hasn’t deviated a bit!  My four-year-old step-daughter, who attends church with her mother, recently told me that I was going to hell because I don’t believe in God.  I was rather taken aback by the comment.

Recently, Australians were all up in arms about a young Islamic child holding up a sign asking for the beheading of those who insult the prophet.  Rightly so, too.  This is not a message of acceptance or tolerance and I’m suitably horrified that any parent would think this is appropriate religious instruction. What is the difference, though, between that boy calling for the physical death of someone due to religion and my four-year-old calling for my eternal damnation due to my religious beliefs?  The Muslim boy was willing to grant you a chance in the next life; my Christian child was damning me forever: eternal damnation in a flaming pit with the devil at the helm.  Wow, that’s nasty stuff from the mouth of a preschool child!  What parent thinks that that is appropriate religious instruction?  Well, I can only assume it’s the Christian parents.  Yes, the very same Christian parents who were so quick to criticise the parents of that little sign-holding Muslim boy.  It sounds to me like the good ol’ pot calling the kettle black. 

The whole concept of heaven and hell just doesn’t ring true to me; logically, emotionally or spiritually.  The idea of heaven and hell is so harshly black and white. There are no second chances, no half way stance or bargaining out of an undesired result at the final moment.  It’s also very subjective in that it’s being sold based on human interpretation of an ancient document, namely the Bible.  That puts the concept of eternal life in the hands of literary interpretation and ambiguous teaching by those not considered literary scholars.  It’s also bizarrely egocentric: I’m going to heaven, you’re going to hell and I can’t save you.  On top of that, I was always told that animals don’t go to heaven because they don’t have souls.  Says who? Who is the definitive adjudicator on which earthly species do and do not have a soul?  When you look into the eyes of animals you see life.  When you look into the eyes of humans you see life.  When both humans and animals are dead, their eyes convey a lack of life.  There’s no logical reason, when we inhabit the same planet in life, that we would not inhabit the same spiritual arena in death. 

Let’s explore the emotional angle in relation to heaven and hell.  Do I have any emotional issue sending someone to heaven for all eternity?  Of course not, it sounds like a lovely place, full of happiness and joy. Let’s just hope we don’t recognise each other when we get there or I’ll have to continue hearing about ridiculously glorified rich people even after death (I’d gladly choose hell than be subjected to Heaven Weekly with Jolie and Pitt on the cover for all eternity).  Do I have any emotional issue sending someone to hell for all eternity?  Yes, absolutely!  That is a shocking notion and I would never allow that to happen to someone if I could help it.  I would sacrifice my own eternal life in heaven for that of someone headed for hell.  I would stand in front of the door to hell and refuse entry to everyone and bargain relentlessly for their souls.  Any loving and merciful god would surely do the same.  Does an innocent child in the middle of nowhere, who has never encountered a Christian missionary and therefore didn’t say that Jesus prayer, spend eternal damnation in hell?  What emotionally-stunted individual could possibly think that that is acceptable on any level?  Any person who is content to stand beside the gates of hell and usher people through has to be suffering some sort of mental disease.  Where’s the compassion and forgiveness here? There’s no way I can condone the idea of people spending eternity in suffering.  It hurts me to my core to even consider that a fellow human could ever have to endure that level of torment on a permanent basis. I would not inflict that on any person ever; even someone I considered my mortal enemy.  As a threat or a warning, I could understand opening the door to hell fractionally and letting the person peek in or feel the heat.  That would probably be enough to have them repent of all their transgressions and I would gladly send their repentant spirits heavenwards.  There is no part of me that can accept a person being in hell. 

So how could Christianity believe such a harsh post-death reality and do so little to halt the spiritual genocide?  Why isn’t every single Christian taking to the streets every minute of every day to save the masses?  Strange...they’re on their way to work, same as me.  They’re sending their kids to school for an education, same as I am.   They’re buying lottery tickets.  They’re singing in church about sacrifice but, while others starve, they’re buying PC tablets and televisions and mobile phones and computers and game consoles and mp3 players. They’re building big houses with big mortgages.  They’re buying four-wheel drives and sports cars.  They’re doing all the same things that a non-Christian would do.  If Christians are convinced that a great atrocity could befall each and every human being that makes an error of judgement, why aren’t their hearts convicted to stop it at all costs?  Why don’t Christians alter their lifestyle to sell us the reality of their concerns or is it all too hard?  Too busy with getting to heaven themselves, perhaps?  Or is it that non-Christians refuse to believe?  Well, maybe I’d believe Christians if they acted differently to the non-Christians, thereby convincing me of the conviction of their beliefs.  That’s just not what happens though. Christians go about their day-to-day lives with minimum effort exerted in the saving souls department.  At the moment, that’s what makes me view religion and post-death beliefs as suffering from psychosis and psychopathy.

From a spiritual standpoint, if you’re good your soul goes to heaven and if you’re evil your soul goes to hell.  After all, it can’t be coincidence that the ruler of heaven is “God” which is one letter removed from “good” and the ruler of hell “Devil”. No wait, that’s far too simplistic to be true.  OK, umm, let’s try this.  If you say a prayer to confess all your sins to God and repent, lay your burdens at the foot of the cross on Calvary, ask Jesus Christ to live in your heart as your personal lord and saviour, you’re skyward bound? Really?  That’s it?  No, that couldn’t be right.  That would mean people like Charles Watson, a mass murderer who later converted to Christianity was going to enter heaven. So, I’m a passionate environmentalist, mother to four special needs children, and involved in all manner of not-for-profit community-focused organisations and I’m headed for hell simply because I’m an atheist.  Yet, a member of the Manson Family makes it through the pearly gates because he says he believes.  Wow!  There is no possible way that could be acceptable.  There must be some other way to get to heaven.  Turning up to church on Sunday?  OK, so that priest that turned out to be a paedophile and that man that beats his wife every Sunday after church are headed for heaven and I’m not?  Man, this heaven thing is brutal.  I’ll become a television evangelist and save souls headed for hell (the money earned is just a bonus).  Well, Jimmy Swaggart, Frank Houston, Melissa Scott (aka Barbie Bridges) and Michael Guglielmucci didn’t turn out to be such bang-up folk or godly representatives either in the televangelism arena.  In addition, apparently it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven. I give up.  There’s no way to ascertain who does and who doesn’t get into heaven.

God of the bible would seem to be a forgiving and merciful god, not someone that hides from us throughout our physical life and then sends us to hell in our spiritual life because we couldn’t see him. The god that’s currently being sold in Christianity is a hateful god.  Why would I want to worship a being that is so unforgiving you end up in hell for eternity?  A god that works with the devil on the side, otherwise why would Satan agree to take God’s heavenly rejects?  I think I read something along those lines in a Jehovah’s Witness magazine too.  If Satan hated God, then I don’t imagine he’s going to be keen to work with God to give him what he wants.  It doesn’t make sense for the devil to obsequiously dispose of God’s spiritual waste products unless they’re working together.

I’m not convinced in life after death, which places an enormous emphasis on my life’s work here on Earth. True freedom has come to me by not relying on the fallback position of heaven.  I live every day thinking it could be the last and making sure I am confident in the legacy of my life as a member of the human race.  I am certainly not expecting a subsequent spiritual life that makes facing death palatable.  If I’m wrong and there is an afterlife, I don’t believe I shall be judged too harshly for my disbelief.  I shall stand proudly at my motivation and be humble while admonished.  One of my many problems with Christianity is that it appears believers are caught up in waiting for the afterlife.  Are religious people squandering their earthly life waiting for the day they meet their maker?  If Christianity’s beliefs are incorrect and there is no afterlife, what then?  Can every Christian confidently claim that they have lived a full life rather than existing in a partially catatonic state awaiting death?